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“But to me the betting irrelevant - my job is to go out there and ride him.”

Tiger Roll’s Aintree odds were drastically cut as a result of his 22-length supremacy under Keith Donoghue in the Glenfarclas Chase last month - the fourth time he has scored at the Cheltenham Festival.

But Russell warned: “I’m not sure you can take that form literally, and on the ratings he was probably entitled to do what he did.

“But he had a flick over a few fences at the Curragh yesterday, and he’s in good order.”

Blaklion, fourth in the 2017 National before being brought down at the first fence 12 months ago, has his first outing for Phil Kirby after leaving Nigel Twiston-Davies.

A total of 22 horses were declared for turf season’s curtain-raiser, for which the Godolphin four-year-old, the mount of James Doyle, is as short as 3-1 market leader.

Charlie Appleby, whose son of Iffraaj has won his last three races - most recently when making a successful handicap debut at Kempton Park in October - said: “His form is progressive and he’s in good form.

“He doesn’t have that experience in big-field handicaps, but I think that’s more of a worry on soft ground - on decent ground the race will be less of a slog.”